Public gets glimpse of plans for Cedar Hill Golf Course

Ron Smith practises his putting in front of the clubhouse at the Cedar Hill Golf Course. The publicly owned golf course is planning to rezone the facility to generate additional revenues. The district has scheduled an open house for Monday to present its plans.

Plans to rezone parts of a publicly owned golf course will not receive formal public deliberations until sometime in 2017.

Cedar Hill Golf Course held an open house Monday to present its plans to rezone its pro shop, clubhouse and adjacent parking lot.

“The timing depends on when planning finalizes [its report] and then they have to get it on the agenda,” said manager Carole Ireland following Monday’s informational open house.

The district initiated the rezoning process to correct an “anomaly” that staff uncovered when it was trying to develop strategies to improve the financial sustainability of the course against the backdrop of unpredictable revenue streams resulting from increasingly unpredictable weather patterns.

If the rezoning goes through, the district would be able to offer the same type of programming and services currently available at its four recreation centres.

The district was hoping to initiate the rezoning process in the summer, but staff availability pushed it back.

If it were up to Susan Haddon, president of the Quadra Cedar Hill Community Association, the district would wait longer and fold the rezoning process into its larger park review process.

“If the zoning has been wrong since the very beginning, why are we hurrying?” she asked.

“It’s not that there is a rush,” said Ireland. “There is no reason to delay because the operations of the golf clubhouse and the recreation centres are outside the scope of that [park review] process. The two processes are independent of each other.”

Haddon acknowledged this aspect, but added that going through the rezoning process now would forestall the possibility of considering the golf course within the larger context of recreation in the area.

“We value this park and all of its aspects,” said Haddon. “This is a chance for the whole community to talk about this and that’s why we want to wait.”

About 30 people attended the open house. “It was about what I was expecting,” said Ireland of the turnout.

Haddon said the public should not read too much into the figure. People, she said, are busy, and the issue may not be on top of mind.

“It’s obviously not a hugely burning issue,” she said. But delaying the rezoning would give the community time to consider some unanswered questions and have a larger conversation about future possibilities at the location, she said.